What goes in a daily site diary?
A daily site diary records who was on site, what work was done, the weather, delays and any instructions received. Written the same day, it is strong evidence if a dispute arises.
Entries for every day
- Date, weather and site conditions.
- Workers and subcontractors on site, with hours.
- Plant and equipment used.
- Work done, by area.
- Deliveries received.
- Visitors and inspections.
Checklist: entries that protect you
- Every instruction, with who gave it and how.
- Every delay, its cause and the work it stopped.
- Any change from the drawings or the contract.
- Weather that stopped or slowed work, with the time.
- Photos, where they help.
- A signature and the date on each page.
Write facts, not blame. State what happened, who saw it and at what time. A line per item is enough if it gives the time, the place and the people.
Use the same headings every day. Then a reader can find every delay in a month of entries without reading them all.
Write the diary at the end of each day, not at the end of the week. Memory fades fast, and a late entry carries less weight. Keep the diary with the project records, and link its entries to the change register.
A worked example
Say a concrete pour on level two is booked for 7 am. The pump arrives at 9:30 because the main road is closed.
The supervisor writes it down that evening: pump arrived 9:30, main road closed, pour from 10:00 to 3:30, six concretors waiting from 7:00 to 10:00. A photo of the road closure is attached. The entry also notes that the crew stayed on site because the pour could not be moved.
Two weeks later the builder questions the overtime on the labour invoice. The diary entry shows the cause and the times, written on the day. Nobody has to rebuild the morning from memory.
Related answers
Questions
Who should write the site diary?
The site manager or supervisor, because they see the work first-hand. Name one person per job.
Can a diary be digital?
Yes. A digital diary works well if each entry is dated and cannot be changed without a trace.
Need this done for your project?